41.
While waiting for Hailian to come in, Fang Tinglan read another letter, which was sent from Chi Jin.
In the letter last week, he gave a concise report on the current situation of Nanhong, and scolded Fang Tinglan for leaving this unfinished mess to him to finish it. At the end, he said that if there was another time, he would kill him. pen.
"Of course the next business will be discussed next time." Fang Tinglan murmured to himself. After hearing the sound of the wooden door being pushed open, he folded the letter and put it aside, beckoning to the person who came, "Actually, I wanted to stay with you for a chat, but you left early, leaving me with no time to speak."
Hailian glanced at him and closed the door, "I don't think I have anything else to talk to you about."
"Really?" Fang Tinglan asked back. At this time, there were only the two of them in the room, and he no longer had to be as polite and courteous as he was with the Tisu people. The man sat leisurely on the edge of the table, and the fingers propped on his side tapped the table one by one, making a series of crisp sounds, " Your Excellency should seize the opportunity, now is one of the few times when I will know everything and never hide it."
"..." Hailian pursed his lips, he was silent for a while, and then took a step forward, "Well, I do have something to ask you."
"Speaking."
"Two things. The first thing is that the envoy told me that you plan to marry Long Rong in exchange for the treaty you just signed," the young man stepped out of the shadows until he came to the lamp, and he watched Fang Tinglan, "Is it true?"
The tapping fingers stopped abruptly, and the two men's eyes met without any love, hatred or intimacy.
"No," Fang Tinglan denied. The man's eyes were deep, and he answered slowly, "I'm not interested in any transactions that are maintained by a weak marriage. I have other ambitions."
The other party's answer was so straightforward, which caught Hailian a little off guard. He opened his mouth, "That's the best."
The man raised his mouth again: "Do you want me to marry your Royal Highness?"
"Of course not." Now that the other party confessed, Hai Lian would never beat around the bush, "I think she is a good woman. If a good woman doesn't even have the right to choose her lover, I don't think it's interesting for the royal family to do it in front of her. A fisherwoman with a net on the embankment. And people like you, better not harm other good people."
"...!" Fang Tinglan couldn't help but burst out laughing.
"What are you laughing at?" Hailian glared at him.
Fang Tinglan's slender fingers covered his thin lips, his sly brows and eyes were still full of smiles, "...it's nothing, your Excellency, please talk about the second thing."
"The second thing is to tell me what happened to Jiumeng after I left." Hai Lian shook his head, "Long Rong and the others can ignore what happened to Jiumeng, but just think about how to fix it and recover it in the future. But I can't."
Fang Tinglan breathed a sigh of relief calmly, "Great, this is exactly what I want to talk to you about."
He was betting on something in Hailian's character that would always attract him, and he won the bet again.
42.
"Before Tisu's accident, my people went to Faluko once, told him some information, and reminded him of some things." When Fang Tinglan said here, he seemed aggrieved and dragged the end of his voice, " I originally wanted to tell you, but unfortunately I was still on Rochester Island, and you went to Taiyan, the situation is urgent, so I can only switch to the next best thing."
"That's what you deserve." Hailian also dragged a chair and sat down, "And what happened later."
"Then he disappeared."
Hailian blurted out in shock: "Missing?!"
"Yes. After that day, no one has seen this sheriff again." Fang Tinglan said.
※※※
A filthy rat stopped at one foot and sniffed it, as if to see if it was edible. The next moment, the toe of the toe with the hole was kicked towards it, and the mouse let out a fearful neigh, and swiftly rushed into the darkness.
It wasn't too cold in Jiumeng City in the Spring Festival, but Erika's arms got goosebumps because of it. He tried hard to suppress the screaming, and hid in the corner of the alley again.
After the carriage overturned that day, the group of people threw torches at them. If Ding Leshui hadn't dragged him out of the carriage, they might have died like this on the first day of the new year.
And today is the third day of the new year.
The carriage was destroyed, the coachman was nowhere to be found, and a large number of people with vague faces and fierce spirits blocked Amber Square, let alone leaving the city. Now he can't even go back to Yulan Street, and can only stand in the reflection with Ding Leshui Hide and wander around the bridge. The clothes that were originally made of Dongzhou brocade were thrown into the stinky ditch long ago. After all, if you still dare to walk around in the street wearing good clothes, you are nothing more than a living target for people to beat you.
The boy heard rustling noises on the staggered beams overhead, probably the mouse that had just passed by his feet; and heard drunks outside the street arguing with shrews, using dirty words he had never even used. He had seen it in books; he had also heard footsteps behind him.
"Who?" Erica turned around sharply.
"it's me."
Ding Leshui carefully pushed aside the obstructions and got in. The flames that day burned off a section of the boy's sleeve, and his hair was singed two inches short, like a nest of birds' nests on the top of his forehead. The curly and dry hair ends dangled back and forth with the movement. He stood in front of Erika, Some hesitantly handed him the oiled paper bag in his arms: "I'm sorry, I only bought so much food..." Inside were two pies that were still warm.
"That's it?!" Erica exclaimed, "I'm a silver buckle, how could it be worth only two broken cakes!"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, because this is the only store willing to sell my food..." Ding Leshui apologized softly, "And I want to save some money..."
"What is there to save! Do you still plan to live this kind of ghost life?" Erika was so angry that she jumped up and down.
"Then, then I'll buy more tomorrow." The long-term slave life made the boy admit his mistake and apologize almost without thinking, and he passed the pie to Erica again, "You haven't eaten for two days, eh Brother Lika."
The word "brother" was like a spell, which choked Erica's throat, and suppressed her overwhelming anger.
Erika grabbed a pie angrily: "... who wants to eat this shit."
"Sorry."
"I don't blame you." Erika said angrily. He paused and asked again, "How is it outside now? Are you still fighting?"
"yes."
Why do adults like to fight so much, Ding Leshui thought. They don't like the flowers and lanterns that Amber Square should have, and prefer to let the cobblestone ground be covered with blood and flames. Everyone is either panicked or has a fierce look on their faces. Even the piece of cake in his hand is... The boy shuddered when he thought of this, and subconsciously shrank his blue elbow into half of his sleeve.
Erica didn't notice his companion's small movements. He was really hungry today. The cheap dry biscuits he called "broken stuff" tasted much better than the pastries made by the chef. The boy wolfed down After eating the pie, he hiccupped several times because there was no water to moisten his throat. After he calmed down, he said, "Let's go find my brother."
"But...but didn't Brother Flo tell us not to look back and go to Qiyun City?"
"Look at the current situation, can you still go to Qiyun?" Erica was really fed up with the other party's appearance like a fool, he clapped his hands, "We mix in the crowd and pretend to be little beggars, no one will notice."
Ding Leshui wanted to say something, but couldn't say anything. Brother Hailian said that if Erika bullied him, he could resist, but he knew that Erika did not bully him, so he couldn't find a reason to refuse, so the boy had to say in a low voice: "Then let's go quietly." ,OK?"
"I know, I know." Erika replied impatiently, grabbed Ding Leshui's sleeve, and tiptoed out of the alley.
The sun above the head was already westward, and a layer of dizzying red appeared from the background of the original blue sky, successfully staining the faces of everyone on the street with this smear of red. Regardless of whether it was a man or a woman, everyone was screaming and screaming, as if they wanted to vent all the voices suppressed by the closure of the bridge in the past few months. As Erica thought, she didn't pay attention to the two little mice on the street. The two of them quickly crossed the Red Slate Street, just about to turn in the direction of the Grand Theater, but were frightened by several gunshots that burst into the air in front of them, so they chose to flee and went around to the carol bell tower.
The number of pedestrians here has finally decreased a lot, but the two children are still in shock, panting violently while leaning against the notice board under the clock tower. After finally her breathing calmed down a bit, Erica was about to continue walking, but was suddenly stopped by Ding Leshui.
The black-haired boy pointed to a piece of paper on the notice board that was still in good condition: "What is it posted here?"
"Can't you see clearly?"
"I... I can't read." Ding Leshui admitted honestly.
Erika curled her lips and smiled triumphantly: "Then when we go home, I will ask my teacher to teach you how to read." He took Ding Leshui's hand and walked to the notice posted just now , stood on tiptoe and glanced at the text above, "I tell you, I can read a lot of characters, and I can already read the entire "Sixth Epic"! Let me see... the former sheriff Faluko... Ah! So his name is Falluco!" the boy exclaimed. He finally recognized the face in the portrait. This face always appeared with the Eastern State Baron, and always had an expression of indifference to the child, so that Erica couldn't tell which was more annoying, but As soon as the guy next to him saw the two of them, he smiled and greeted them, hum.
Ding Leshui recognized the person in the portrait from the very beginning, and he couldn't help but feel a little anxious: "What are you talking about?"
"What are you urging!" Erika glared at him, "What is written in the back is that this person colluded with the enemy country... encouraged the tyrant to implement tyranny... there is a reward for hiding anything - I know, this is a wanted warrant!"